WASHINGTON (AP) — In the waning days of the Biden administration, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas defended his agency’s work to tamp down border-crossing numbers and argued against breaking apart the sprawling department in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press.

President-elect Donald Trump, who promised an aggressive Day 1 effort to stop illegal immigration and remove people in the country illegally, has chosen South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to take over the agency responsible for border and airport security, disaster response, protections for high-level dignitaries and more. She faces a confirmation hearing Wednesday.

As he prepares to leave office, Mayorkas said he has spoken repeatedly to Noem, including about the Jan. 1 truck attack in New Orleans and the wildfires in California, calling the conversations “meaningful, very productive, very positive.”

Here are some takeaways from AP’s interview with Mayorkas:

How the numbers have changed

The number of people crossing the border illegally initially skyrocketed under President Joe Biden before falling sharply last year. December was the sixth straight month that arrests for illegal crossings were fewer than the monthly average in 2019.

Republican critics pointed to the rising numbers to argue that the Biden administration wasn’t doing enough to control the border, and many voters agreed this November.

Mayorkas argued the increase actually started toward the end of the first Trump presidency but then the COVID-19 pandemic suppressed migration. The U.S. climbed out of the pandemic faster than other countries in the hemisphere, and the numbers increased, he said.

Mayorkas said people are on the move worldwide, not just heading toward the U.S.

“The level of displacement is now greater than it ever has been since World War II,” he said. “And that is a phenomenon that is experienced internationally.”

Mayorkas praised what the Biden administration has done to address the rising numbers, including creating safe mobility offices in other parts of the world and negotiating agreements with other countries to return their citizens.

“It’s a multipronged, multifaceted approach,” he said.

Facing criticism over security

Mayorkas became a lightning rod for criticism about border security and was impeached in early 2024 by Republicans who argued that he wasn’t upholding immigration laws. At the time, Mayorkas called those charges politically motivated and baseless.

He said it’s important to remember the context when the Biden administration came into office. Title 42 — the pandemic-era rule allowing officials to quickly eject migrants without letting them request asylum — was still in place. Biden eventually ended the policy, although, Mayorkas said, huge pressure existed to keep it over concern that immigration numbers would climb.

The secretary said the department had to build the capacity to do things like beef up the number of expedited removals and pointed to a lack of funding from Congress.

“We turned to Congress and requested supplemental funding. We didn’t succeed,” Mayorkas said. “We actually struck a bipartisan Senate deal that would have been an enduring solution to the border. … It was politically torpedoed.”

On the other end of the political spectrum, some immigration advocates have been disappointed by the Biden administration, pointing to asylum restrictions put in place when the southern border is overwhelmed and other policies.

Mayorkas pushed back, pointing to examples like the rebuilt refugee program, which Trump put on life support his first term.

“I couldn’t disagree more vigorously. I just fundamentally disagree,” Mayorkas said. “Do they understand the reality of the number of encounters that we experienced at the border and how unacceptable that is from a border security perspective?”